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Hanging in a FL state park

I talked to a park manager today about the Florida issue and here is the gist of what he said:

Call the park ahead of time to try to get permission

Mention early and often that you will be using "tree saver" straps that prevent damage to the tree

As politely as possible make sure that the word gets passed down the chain to the campground to let them know that you will be coming out and safely hanging a hammock in a way that does zero damage to the trees

Be polite and helpful and make sure that you don't end up creating a conflict of any kind (it's better to not provoke another camper to anger that could then say that you are hanging from a tree which is against the rules... they won't have much choice but to force you to take your hammock down)

He said it will really be up to the individual park manager but the main thing to stress no matter who you talk to is "tree savers" (aka straps) that will prevent damage to the trees. He said that he doesn't have a problem with people hanging hammocks (it sounds like he uses a hammock sometimes too) and that his people know that it is ok or will call him and as long as people are using "tree savers" he will give it his blessing.

Best of luck to all who try going to state parks... I still vote for using state and national forests, but I'm biased (I manage a state forest )

Dave

P.S. A little bird says that Lake Kissimmee state park is as hammock friendly as is possible under the current laws.

great news, we are camping at Oscar Schearer State Park, Sarasota next weekend. Now I won't have to stealth any more.

I don't know about it being great news since you have no guarantee that they will let you hang and it is a fairly tenuous permission at best. But it's better than nothing.

I think that the best thing that we could do from here is to find a park that might be amenable to a decent sized group hang, do it again, and again, and again, and then two things will happen. First, they will see that it doesn't impact the resource and gets them used to having hangers, AND it will show them that there really is a group of people that would like to camp at the state parks that will be excluded if they don't allow hammock camping.

We may or may not need to get any laws changed but if we don't start trying to get out there and hang in the parks in large groups then we won't know and we won't be able to show them (state parks) that there is a problem that needs solving.

Just be sure that everyone checks and double checks their trees before getting in the hammock. We wouldn't want a situation of where a hammock caused a tree that "looked" good to topple over. Perhaps having ranger on site while you go around and push and shove on all the trees so that if something does fall they will see it wasn't the voodoo of a hammock that caused it to happen.

*Heaven best have trees, because I plan to lounge for eternity.

Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement. - Mark Twain